Grant McCann is the logical choice to manage Peterborough United

Unless he can work some instant magic in 14 Championship matches that’s where he will be judged on his return to the Weston Homes Stadium.

Once the fantasy of expecting Neil Warnock to pitch up and bawl at referees on behalf of Posh was exposed, McCann was a logical choice to succeed Darren Ferguson.

He certainly ticks plenty of boxes. He’s a keen advocate for younger players having started coaching with Posh youths while overseeing the development of Leo Da Silva Lopes during his first stint as first-team boss. More recently Keane Lewis-Potter thrived under McCann at Hull.

McCann moved to the local area when signing on as a Posh player in 2010 and has never left despite taking jobs at Doncaster Rovers and Hull City. He has two sons in the Posh Academy so the bond with the club is still strong despite a couple of wobbles along the way.

McCann also wants attacking, exciting football which will please the chairman who dismissed him four years ago this month. Jack Marriott will also presumably be pleased McCann is back. The striker was rescued from Luton Town reserves by the Northern Irishman and scored the majority of his 33 goals in the 2017-18 season under his management.

McCann will also know the strengths and weaknesses of the current Posh squad having clashed with them three times in the last two seasons and most importantly he knows how Darragh MacAnthony works. Some of the more veteran suggestions to replace Ferguson would struggle with such a high-profile, hands-on boss.

It’s a safe bet McCann will be a better, wiser manager now than when he left London Road. He delivered the League One play-offs to Doncaster Rovers and he delivered the first Football League title for 55 years to Hull last season. His relegation with Hull the previous season should be forgiven as the club undermined him horribly by selling stars Jarred Bowen and Kamil Grosicki midway through the campaign.

Those experiences will have hardened McCann. Those soft Irish tones always masked a fierce competitor anyway. He strongly disagreed with MacAnthony’s decision to dismiss him in 2018, but that will only motivate him now.

McCann can be ruthless. He wouldn’t back down when it was suggested his Doncaster team should have thrown the ball back in a crucial game against Ferguson’s Posh at the Keepmoat Stadium after the visitors had kicked it out of play believing a teammate needed treatment. Doncaster instead took a quick throw-in and scored.

That incident lost him a few Posh admirers, but they’ll soon be won back should an upturn in results follow McCann’s return.

They say you should never come back, but that didn’t apply to Ferguson who kept returning to win promotions so hopefully it won’t apply to McCann.

It’s just a shame the high-class midfielder can’t play as well.

In Football League matches as Posh manager between May 2016 and February 2018 McCann’s record was P83 W32 D23 L28 F128 A111. He picked up 47.8% of the available points which placed him 10th on the all-time Posh managerial list in between Gary Johnson (48%) and Keith Alexander (46.9%).

At 22 months, McCann enjoyed the second longest reign of chairman Darragh MacAnthony’s managerial appointments. Only Darren Ferguson (twice) survived for longer.